Wolves have ruthlessly dismissed manager Vitor Pereira following Saturday’s woeful 3-0 defeat to Fulham. Despite signing a new contract with the club in September, the Portuguese has been shown the door by the West Midlands outfit after failing to secure a single Premier League victory in 10 attempts.
Pereira made a sweeping nine changes to his starting line-up from the team that exited the Carabao Cup against Chelsea on Wednesday night. However, his tweaks failed to spark a win at Craven Cottage.
Saturday’s defeat in west London leaves Wolves languishing at the bottom of the top-flight table – and now a daunting eight points adrift of safety. Pereira’s side played more than half the match against Fulham with 10 men after Emmanuel Agbadou’s 36th-minute dismissal, but they were already trailing 1-0 at that point.
Harry Wilson then added to Ryan Sessegnon’s early goal before a Yerson Mosquera own goal sealed the rout and marked the end of their manager’s 11-month tenure.
The ex-Porto boss took the reins at Molineux in December 2024, succeeding Gary O’Neil, and successfully navigated Wolves to safety last season. However, the departure of star player Matheus Cunha after Manchester United activated his £62.5million release clause dealt a significant blow.
Now, Wolves are on the hunt for a new manager ahead of Saturday’s trip to Chelsea (8pm). Speaking after the defeat to Fulham, the now-dismissed Pereira could not hide his disappointment.
“I’m disappointed. I’m not proud of my work, of our work, because I don’t know why. I don’t know if it’s because, mentally, we put a lot of energy in the last game against Chelsea until the last minute,” he confessed.
“But what I realised [against Fulham] was a very difficult game for us, tactically, technically, physically. We played maybe one of the worst games that we’ve played. Even with 11 players against 11, since the first minute the energy to move, the offensive dynamic, and the energy to press was not there.
“After five minutes, I started to realise that something is missing. But the game was balanced, because even then, they weren’t playing in a high level. But after the goal, we tried to do something, but not in our level. After the red card, it was very difficult for us.”
When questioned about his future at Molineux, he responded: “I’m trying everything. I’m trying everything to mentally keep the team in conditions to compete. I had very good feelings from the last game – especially the second half – but I don’t think two days was enough to recover for this game. But it’s my responsibility.
“I’m not a manager to put responsibilities on the players, but together, we need to have a talk, and to assume the responsibilities together as a group because we cannot accept this level that we played. I’m a fighter. I never give up. I’m not this kind of person. I will try my best in the next training to mentally recover the team, to tactically recover the organisation that we need for the next game.
“But this is a difficult game for this evaluation. If you look for the second 45 minutes that we play against Chelsea, I could tell you that they are together. They are fighting. They are fighting to try to turn over the situation, but I can’t.
“We need to reflect about what happened here, because it was not the team. Before this game, if you look for the Burnley game, if you look for the Sunderland game, one half of the time we played in a good level, and the other half of the time we struggled and didn’t play in our level. We cannot play one half in our level and the other half in a different level. We must be consistent.
“In my mind here, I thought we’ll go there – changing some players – and we can show that we can be consistent in a full game, but it was not the case. If I’m happy, I’m happy, if I’m proud, I’m proud, but I cannot represent that [vs Fulham]. I’m not proud. I’m not happy, and we must play in a better level and we must give the answer in the next game.”